We provide grants to help people who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness to help access accommodation. We fund costs associated with securing accommodation such as deposits, rent in advance, ID to support someone to secure housing, and removal costs.

The VRF provides crisis grants for people who are: 

• Currently experiencing homelessness or 
• At imminent risk of becoming homeless 

Our funding is focused on helping individuals access accommodation where this would not otherwise be possible. Applications should only be made to us as a last resort, and only where the grant will directly prevent or alleviate homelessness. We cannot fund requests that are solely to reduce financial burdens.

For full details, please read the Grant Making Policy. 

Before submitting a grant application, please read our Grant Making Policy in full.

We give grants to help people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to access accommodation. Examples include: a deposit, rent in advance, ID, removal costs, or temporary / emergency accommodation. 

Yes, we provide grants UK-wide. 

We will consider paying up to £500 for all VRF Grants. 

If you are applying for more than this amount, you must clearly explain the exceptional circumstances of your client in the application. 

You may apply for more than one grant for the same client. However, the maximum amount we can award to any one client in any 12-month period is £500. This is calculated from the date the initial application is submitted and is not calculated on a calendar year basis. 

These upper grant limits allow us to deliver the impact of a small grant to more individuals who are experiencing homelessness and are in need of funds. 

To award a grant, we must be confident that it will lead to the outcome being achieved. 

If a grant is to be used as part of a bigger package of support, please ensure you include information about the other funding sources and their specific amounts, e.g. £200 Discretionary Housing Payment. 

Only in extremely limited and exceptional circumstances. The application must clearly demonstrate that accommodation cannot be secured and accessed without the item. 

If you are looking for help that our grants cannot facilitate, we suggest checking the Turn2Us grants database.

If your client needs white goods and furniture, we also suggest exploring these two resources from End Furniture Poverty: 

• End Furniture Poverty's Local Welfare Assistance Finder
• Get help with furniture - End Furniture Poverty 

Yes, we can award funds for deposits and rent in advance to help someone access a private tenancy. 

No, we no longer fund applications for Debt Relief Orders in England and Wales. With our limited funds, we're focusing on grants that directly help people access accommodation where this wouldn’t otherwise be possible. 

No, we no longer fund applications for hoarding or decluttering support. We're focusing our limited funds on helping people access accommodation where this wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

If you feel this type of support is essential to achieving that outcome, please do get in touch as we are always keen to learn from frontline workers' experiences.

We no longer fund grants to prevent eviction or clear rent arrears, including in social or private sector housing. We are now focusing our support where a grant can unlock access to accommodation that would not otherwise be available. 

If your client is facing eviction, you can apply for a grant for a deposit or rent in advance for a new property to prevent homelessness. 

If you are looking for help that we don't provide, we recommend checking: 

• Turn2Us grants database 
• Lightening Reach 

We do not offer advice on housing or homelessness. We provide grants through the VRF programme. Our phone line is just for queries about VRF grant registrations, applications and payments. For advice we suggest you contact Shelter or your local Citizen Advice Bureau.

We only accept applications from paid frontline workers providing direct support to people who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.  This includes staff working in the voluntary, statutory and public sectors:   This includes, but is not limited to, staff working in: 

• Housing and homelessness services (e.g. outreach, resettlement, supported housing) 
• Advice and support roles (e.g. CAB, welfare, housing rights, debt and money advice) 
• Health and mental health services (e.g. GPs, CMHTs, drug and alcohol support, inclusion teams) 
• Statutory and criminal justice services (e.g. social workers, probation, prison in-reach, police) 
• Local authorities and public sector teams providing direct support 
• Charities and community organisations working with people facing homelessness 

This is not an exhaustive list. If you're unsure whether your role qualifies, feel free to contact us. 

You cannot register if you are: 

• a volunteer or in an unpaid role 
• employed by an organisation that is not registered with the relevant UK authorities (e.g. the Charity Commission or Companies House), or part of a group that cannot provide a constitution with an asset lock 
• not providing direct support to people who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness 
• applying on behalf of friends or family 
• using a personal or non-work email address (e.g. Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo), unless we can verify the organisation and that the email is used solely for work purposes 

Before a grant application can be made, frontline workers must register with us by going to smitf.flexigrant.com. 

We can only accept applications through our Flexi-Grant Application Portal. 

Registration involves 3 steps: 

1. Provide your own, individual direct work email address 
2. Confirm your email address (you will receive an automated email — please check your spam or junk folders) 
3. Log in at smitf.flexigrant.com/login.aspx, select ‘Application Portal’ at the top left of the screen, then select and complete the ‘New User Registration Form’. This is not a grant application form. 

Once submitted, please allow up to 5 working days for us to review your registration. 

As part of the process, your line manager will be contacted to verify your account request and confirm oversight of any applications you make. We will assess the information from both you and your line manager, and if you meet the criteria of a Permitted User, we will send you a confirmation email when your account is activated. 

Once your account is confirmed, you will be able to submit grant applications. 

For more information about the registration process please see our New User Registration Video Guide on our Help Page. 

To register, go to smitf.flexigrant.com and create a new account on our Flexi-Grant Application Portal. You’ll need to verify your email address and complete the New User Registration form.

Once submitted, our team will review your details. We will then contact your line manager to confirm they are aware of your registration and can provide oversight for any grant applications you make. If both you and your line manager meet the necessary criteria, we will approve your registration and send a confirmation email to let you know your account is active.

We ask for your line manager's confirmation to ensure there is clear accountability and oversight of how grants are applied for and used. This helps us confirm that applications are made appropriately, in line with our guidelines, and that someone within your organisation can support or follow up if needed. It also ensures your organisation is aware of and supports your role in submitting applications on behalf of clients. 

We do not accept applications from members of the public. We are not caseworkers and unfortunately cannot provide casework support ourselves. 

If you need a grant yourself, you will need to approach a support service (e.g. a homelessness charity, such as those listed below, or Citizens Advice) and ask them to apply for you: 

England: Shelter England, Homeless Link 
Northern Ireland: Housing Rights NI 
Scotland: Shelter Scotland 
Wales: Shelter Cymru 

Before applying for a grant, you must register with us (see Section 2 above ‘Registering and Eligibility’). 

Grant applications are made through our Flexi-Grant Application Portal. 

For guidance on applying, see our video guide and links under ‘Applying for a Grant’ on our Help Page. 

All applications must include a completed and signed client consent form, which can be downloaded from a link in the application form itself. 

For more information and a video guide to completing the form, please see under the heading 'Client consent / Consent Forms' on our Help Page (the consent form can also be downloaded from there). 
 
We also require evidence before we can assess application forms. For information about what application evidence is needed (and accepted formats), please see the 'Application Evidence' document under the heading 'Applying for a Grant' on our Help Page. 

If your client is unable / not available to sign the Written Consent Form by hand, themselves for personal or practical reasons, there will be an option in the grant application to complete verbal consent. 

A completed VRF consent form must be uploaded to your application before we can assess it. 

For instructions on how to complete the consent form, see the video guide under the heading 'Client Consent / Consent Form' on our Help Page. 

If your application is successful, payments are made within 5 working days to the organisation that employs you. This is to ensure that funds are allocated to verified organisations and that grants are used for the purpose for which they have been awarded. 

We cannot make payments directly to the prospective landlord or the client. 

If awarded, the grant payment will be made by BACS transfer. Please make sure that all account details are correct before submitting the application.

Please allow 5 working days to receive a response about your application. We ask that you do not contact us within this time. The VRF is in very high demand and to ensure we treat all applications fairly, we do not respond to requests for an application to be fast-tracked. 

Once we have received the application, we are only able to discuss the application with the frontline worker who submitted it and the manager named on the application, or in their absence, a colleague from the same organisation. 

The VRF is in very high demand and our team is small so unfortunately, we don’t have the time and resources to give feedback about unsuccessful applications. 

The most common reasons applications are unsuccessful are: 

• The client is ineligible eg they are not homeless or at risk of homelessness 
• The client had already moved in to the accommodation 
• Payment of the cost / item had already been made 
• The application was made for support that VRF doesn’t offer
• The required evidence was not provided 
• The consent form was not complete or a VRF consent form was not uploaded to the application.
• The case for support may not have been clearly made in order for us to make an informed decision as there is little explanation of why the grant is needed, how it meets our eligibility criteria, and how it will help the client avoid housing vulnerability in the future.

We may have to decline some applications due to budget restrictions, and had to prioritise applications for people in less secure or unsafe housing / circumstances 

In Flexi-grant, if the status of your application is at 'Current Stage: Offer' this means that your application has been successful and is waiting to be processed. 

Please do not contact us during this time unless it has been more than 5 working days since you submitted your application. You will receive an email once the grant has been processed. 

Your application has been returned to you in the portal because it’s missing some important information or evidence. Don’t worry, this is not a decline, we just need a bit more information in order to assess it. When an application has been returned to you, we email you and your line manager to clearly outline exactly what’s needed from you. If we don’t receive the required evidence, unfortunately, we’ll have to decline the application.

Yes, but if the cost for the new property is less than the grant amount we paid the unused funds must be returned. 

For instructions of how to return funds, please log in to the Application Portal and see under the heading 'Returning Funds' 

Any correctly used grant funds (as set out in your application) do not need to be paid back. It is a grant not a loan.  

If we have funded a deposit, and the client has moved out and the deposit has been released, it should be passed to the client and does not need to be returned to us.

Any unused grant funds do need to be paid back so that we can use them to support others. 

For instructions of how to return funds, please log in to the Application Portal and see under the heading 'Returning Funds' 

We can accept a grant return by BACS payment. Full instructions for returning a grant can be found in the Application Portal under the heading ‘The grant is no longer needed, how can I return it?’. 

By returning unused funds to us, you are enabling us to reallocate them to someone else who needs financial support. 

Once the funds have been spent, you must provide evidence to the VRF that the funds have been used as set out in your application within eight weeks of the grant being paid. 

For a list of what types of evidence is required please see the 'Evidence of Spend' document under the heading 'Evidence of Spend' on our Help Page. 

For instructions on how to submit the evidence please see the video guide under the heading 'Evidence of Spend' on our Help Page 

By accepting a VRF grant you agreed to provide us with evidence of how the grant was spent as set out in our Terms & Conditions document, which can be found on our Help Page.  

If you are late submitting evidence without agreeing this with us first, or if there are unresolved queries about the evidence submitted, your account will be suspended. 

While suspended, you will not be able to apply for a VRF grant. You will be able to upload evidence of spend whilst suspended, but unable to start or finish any applications. 

If you cannot access your account, but are unsure why, please email us at vrf@stmartinscharity.org.uk so that we can look into this for you. 

If your account is suspended, we will be in touch with you to discuss your outstanding evidence of spend, so that we can consider reinstating your account. 

You can email us on vrf@stmartinscharity.org.uk 

Our number for voicemail only is 020 3795 5746 

You can write to us at: 

The Vicar's Relief Fund 
5 St Martin’s Place, 
London,
WC2N 4JH 

Please note that we are a small team, so before contacting us, ensure you have read the instructions provided on the application form, reviewed the Help Page, and checked these FAQs for further guidance.